Regarding this latest terrorist scare

[thewayne]

So now I can't take my laptop on a flight, so much for being productive when I travel. And I can't take bottled water on a flight. But if I wanted to blow up a flight, I could build a body harness under my shirt holding bags of combustable liquid, just wear a loose shirt and maybe a jacket (obviously not in Phoenix). And no electronics. At least I won't have to worry about asshats gabbing on their phones incessantly while we're on the ground. And it would be so difficult to make a medical-looking device, plant some electrodes into my skin, and produce a doctor's note saying that it is an anti-seizure device for a life-threatening condition.

I'm sure I probably could no longer take a pack of Oscar Meyer Lunchables on a long flight, so I'll be stuck with airplane food. Oh, that's right, I don't have to worry about that: airlines no longer feed you.

I used to read a column written under the pen name of Steve Canyon. He was an airline pilot, and he said that the one thing you did not want to drink was airplane water. The standard for cleaning the tank are very low, and there's no telling where that tank was last filled: it could have been Mexico, it could have been Detroit.

So now I'm wondering if we'll be able to buy anything liquid from the vendors that are beyond the security "barrier".

Finally, the CATO Institute released a paper on the risks of terrorism. To say they are low is overstating it. http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/cato_on_the_ris.html. An article in American Scientist said that for airline flying to be as dangerous as driving in a car that there would have to be a set of 9/11 crashes EVERY MONTH.


I am so damn glad that I don't fly on a regular basis. I feel so much safer.

Comments

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I quit the police department in March 2001 and at that point I was no longer working the chess tournaments in 'Vegas, so my main reason for flying had gone away. Until last year and getting married, then the funeral for my FIL, I hadn't flown.

Russet and I had been considering going to DragonCon in Atlanta as she theoretically would be in Virginia at that time and could maybe hitch a ride with two friends from the Richmond area and I'd fly out of El Paso or Phoenix, but that plan fell through. Now she's not going to VA (she was to do some work with people building a new instrument for her telescope, but the VA people are running behind sched), but she might fly to Maine to see her sis, we don't know yet. But she checked flights this AM after the news got out, they all went up in price.

For me, driving to Phoenix is slightly less expensive than flying. Definitely less expensive when you consider mileage back and forth to El Paso and either double that for someone to drive me or to store the car, I prefer the drive, longish though it may be.

[donkey-hokey.livejournal.com]

But you're only counting monetary expense. :) The reduced stress level makes it MUCH less expensive.